Apple Opens Mini iPad Preorders Only at the Foot of Its Own Orchard, Customers Required to Pick Each Unit Off a Tree

Apple has moved all preorders for its eighth-generation iPad Mini into a single orchard behind its Cupertino campus, where customers must climb a ladder, pick a tablet from a branch and carry it to the register before it can be sold. The company confirmed the arrangement on Thursday, and the first pickers began queuing at dawn with baskets and tablecloths.

The 8.5-inch OLED display, which Apple says is the largest the Mini has ever carried, is grown on the lower boughs, while the thinner, lighter models sit near the top where the A20 Pro chip is said to ripen fastest. Orchard staff have been trained to tell a finished unit from an unripe one by its weight and colour, and each tablet is priced at $699 in whichever shade the branch produced.

A spokesperson described the scheme as a return to first principles. « We have always believed a product should be grown before it is sold, » the spokesperson said. « The Mini is the smallest thing we make, so it was the obvious place to start. »

Staff at the neighbouring retail stores have been reassigned to the orchard, and a new ladder-safety department has been created to supervise the climb. Shoppers who arrive without a basket are issued one at the gate, and a waiting list now runs back to the car park. Apple has not said what will happen to the November 6 shelf date, though sources in the orchard say the first harvest is expected to be gathered by Tuesday.

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